Jessica Alba – Action Hero Movies

The first 10 minutes of this movie is full of toxic drama as we get to know the core characters. But the cast members are not intrinsically bad and there are undertones of something special brewing, so there’s a sense of anticipation.

By 15 minutes in, the creation scene is over and the Fantastic Four begin to discover and learn to handle their new superpowers.

With teenage dirtbag style music blasting through the screen by 20 minutes in, after a lot of soap opera style dialogue, it’s clear this movie is never going to be a great one, even if it’s got some decent features to its name. Even the strong action scenes drag their heels a lot.

1 hour in, the supervillain (played by Julian McMahon) discovers his own superpowers and kills some people.

This movie has some interesting stuff going on, and a fair amount of slow and trashy stuff too, so in the end, I rate it slightly Below Average from a smooth action hero movie fan’s perspective.

Sequel

If you enjoyed this movie, check out its sequel: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) which has a similar pace and quality and an original story — and as such, is worthy of a similar rating — that’s slightly Below Average. The ending of the sequel is like a cross between Captain Planet and Doctor Strange.

This movie is a little bit more interesting than the original, with a better plot and a better supporting cast.

Jason Statham is in his element here, as an assassin tasked with overcoming more adversity this time round than before. He’s given a series of difficult assassination missions to complete in order to save his girlfriend who is being held hostage.

Jessica Alba plays his girlfriend – she does a solid job in this lead female role.

Tommy Lee Jones also does very well in his supporting role that has only a small amount of screen time towards the end of the movie.

Sam Hazeldine does a decent job as the chief baddie in this movie.

Michelle Yeoh performs adequately, albeit with a snotty nose, as a friend of Statham’s character who looks after a resort where he keeps a safe house – she gets a good amount of screen time.

All in all, I rate Mechanic Resurrection (2016) one or two levels higher than the original Mechanic (2011) due to the improved plot and the improved supporting cast. It’s always nice to see a sequel outperform the original, considering it’s usually the other way round.